This brief interruption to New York is brought to you by the potential loss of $500 or potential gain of $2,000-4,000. Before I explain what I mean, let me set things up.Here's the thing. I'm a big dude, and I'm pretty out of shape. I'm definitely ok with who I am and I'm a pretty confident guy. Most of you already know this. I've also had spurts of enthusiasm about getting into better shape. I even bought a treadmill a year or two ago. Using it actually using it lasted for... well, not that long.
Well, yesterday, a coworker came to me and told me that a few guys at work were doing a biggest loser contest, but this one was going to be a lot more motivating than the normal, contribute-ten-bucks-and-hope-for-the-best sort of competitions. Participating in this weight loss challenge would cost one hundred dollars a month for five months. And this was not a month by month thing. You're in from day one all the way to the end, or you're not in at all. So really, if you participate, you'd have to have five hundred bucks to hand over at the end if you don't win. But that also means that if you DO win, there's potential to win a TON of money. Eight guys weighed in yesterday and we have until Friday to decide if we're in all the way. Four guys have already signed the paper saying they'll fork over the five hundred if they lose. That makes the pot currently $2,000 bucks.
So here's my dilemma. I think I could totally win this competition. But if I don't, am I going to be ok with handing over five hundred bucks? I've done smaller little things like this before, and I don't care if I lose the ten or twenty dollars. It's not motivating enough to get me to try longer than a day or two. But I will DEFINITELY care if I lose five hundred. So the question is, under what circumstances would I be ok with losing that much money? After much thought and discussion with friends and family, here's the answer: if I actually tried and did everything to win that money over the whole 5 months, lost a bunch of weight, and still didn't win, THEN I'd be ok with it. It would have been the motivation to get me up off my ass and do something to lose weight. But if I sit on my ass the whole time, I'd be pissed at myself. (Sorry to my more sensitive readers... I'm working on the swearing, but I think "ass" rather than "bum" conveys the meaning a little better here.)
I'm going to do this. My biggest problem is the long term motivation. I'll be honest, most things that require self-motivation, a lot of physical work, and no charity organization are hard for me. So I am going to tell everyone I know that I am doing this, and I expect you all to check in on me and motivate me to keep at it. I won't mind an intermittent text here and there, bringing it up in conversation, or motivating me to NOT go out to eat, or to make good choices when I do. I'll probably blog about this once or twice a month, too. And I'm going to join Weight Watchers by the end of this week. I lost a bunch of weight when I did Weight Watchers at Work, so if I can do it again, it will also help motivate me.
And that's that. I commenced this little journey into weight loss with indulging in a chocolate fountain at my sister-in-law's place (I can NEVER do that again. So don't invite me.), and a 15 minute jog on my very neglected treadmill this morning. I'm blogging about this now, early in the morning, so my friends and family will all know what I'm up to. Thanks for your support guys! I think this is really going to get me motivated... I just need to stay motivated for five months. :-)
16 comments:
Good luck Garrett! You can do it!!! Want to sign up for a triathlon? That might help you to be motivated too. :)
Or maybe a Thanksgiving Day race. that's in about 5 months, right?
Rock on Garrett! We started our little biggest loser group too. We wanted it to be a bigger pot in order to motivate us as well so we did $100 ea. It was going great until drama unfolded. I figure that's what you get with a group of girls. Hopefully there will be no drama for you. The group we have left though are completely great and not blinded by greed. Good luck!
You can totally do this, and I think its awesome that you are trying! I'm not going to say good luck, because luck has nothing to do with it.
I am so impressed Garrett. Emity is right, you can totally do this. I'm your cheerleader - L-E-T-S G-O. Let's Go, Let's Go! :) You rock!
Garrett, we can totally support each other (check out my blog for my recent re-kick-in-the-pants about exercise and weight loss)! I know you can do it and I'm super proud of you for choosing to be healthy :)
Thanks for all the encouragement, everyone! You're all super. I thought it was funny at first that all my comments on this post are from women... until I realized that of all the blog links I have there on the left, there are only three men anyway. So thanks, chicas, for the support! I'm going to give away my goal, too. 70 pounds in 5 months. I can totally do it if I stick with it the whole time and hit it hard. And on that note, me and my treadmill have another date. ;-)
Go Garrett! Can Mom and I join you? Not with the $500, but with having everyone help us to be healthy?
Hey, the more the merrier. Maybe we should get together for a salad on Sunday, huh?
Yeah heah! Weight Watchers is the best! I am hoping to find a good leader in SLC.
You can totally do it GW! Good luck!
Well, Garrett, you have my vote. That's how these things work right, with the winner being determined by fan vote? I recommend an exercise mix composed entirely of Eminem. I find the anger helps me run longer/faster, though probably won't help at all with the swearing.
Thanks for your vote! I wish it worked that way... I think I've got more votes than anyone in the office, so that's nice to have people rooting for me. But I while I can definitely understand why Eminem would be good for an exercise mix, you're very right that it wouldn't help the swearing.
Two thoughts...one, did you get your fitness membership today? I had another date with my fitness room, and it was fantastic :) Second, you could go Eminem edited, though a friend has one of those, and some songs are totally incomprehensible! I had a similar experience watching Good Will Hunting on TV once; there are only so many F*&! one can take out of a sentence before there are more bleeps than words...Good luck with the swearing, by the way; that's just as hard as the weight loss, I think.
You can do it! Remember that food is the biggest factor. Lots of whole grains and veggies. I need to get back on the bandwagon as well.
Remember that salt intake is a big part of actually losing pounds. When Brian revealed that he was using soy sauce for marinade two seasons ago, his trainer was shocked and when he cut it out, he started putting up the big numbers. So, salt=water retention= no matter how much fat you lose, you aren't showing it on the scale. We're rooting for you!
I was going to leave a comment here asking you how it was going, but since there are already 15 other comments, I don't think I will... oh, wait. Delete, delete, delete!!! ...crap!
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